Florida SBA hires CalPERS PE officer Bradle

  • CalPERS exec to be senior portfolio manager
  • Shifts in leadership team since 2012
  • System’s private equity portfolio worth $6.6 billion

The board hired Wesley Bradle from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System in February as a senior portfolio manager on the private equity team, sister website peHUB reported. Bradle works under John Bradley, who leads the five-person private equity team. Other members of the team are Reid Hanway, Melissa Griffin and Luanne Good.

Bradle worked as an investment officer in private equity at CalPERS from 2008 to January of this year, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He joins the team that has been investing big money in private equity over recent years. The system’s private equity portfolio is valued at about $6.6 billion. Recent commitments have gone to Lexington Middle Market Investors II, Carlyle Partners IV, Riverside Capital Appreciation Fund VI, Apollo Investment Fund VIII, Silver Lake Partners IV, TowerBrook Investors IV, KPS Special Situations Fund IV and KKR Asia Fund II, among others.

Florida SBA also held a secondary sale run by Park Hill Group last year that disposed of older funds. “We viewed this as both a portfolio clean-up exercise and a way to redeploy capital into new opportunities,” a spokesperson told peHUB at the time.

Florida SBA’s private equity team’s leadership shifted in 2012 after long-time head Jim Treanor left the system. Trent Webster, a 15-year veteran of the system, moved into the senior investment officer role, while Bradley took over the newly created position of director of private equity.

Since that time, Bradley has taken full control of the private equity group, while Webster has taken over the strategic investments operation, which includes anything that doesn’t fit into global equities, private equity, real estate and fixed income — strategies including hedge funds, infrastructure, timberland and others.

Chris Witkowsky is editor of peHUB.